Subjects of Interest:
Candle Face Chronicles
The Lost Souls
November 7, 2024
A little over a month ago, I shared a journal entry about a visit from two lost souls—a couple who appeared in my living room one restless night when I couldn’t sleep. The man was initially hesitant, but they eventually shared their tragic story. They described how they once lived peacefully on a ranch east of Austin, Texas, only for their lives to spiral into chaos when the woman began hearing tormenting voices from Candle Face after losing faith in her. These voices were relentless, pushing her to the brink, until her husband, in a desperate attempt to end her suffering, took her life with a gunshot. Their story took an even darker turn when the husband himself was shot by their son, who acted out of anger and misunderstanding, convinced that his father was abandoning him. The couple’s remains were buried together, their story lost to time, as Candle Face held them in her lair, ensuring that their torment continued.
Unlike many previous visits, this couple’s story didn’t feel like a simple recounting of their suffering—it carried specific details that felt like clues. I felt compelled to dig deeper, hoping to see if historical records could corroborate their story.
With that in mind, I turned to research. The couple had mentioned a ranch east of Austin, the man’s Mexican heritage, and a death involving a firearm. To start, I used Google and tried search terms like “elderly couple disappearance Texas ranch,” “missing couple gunshot ranch Austin,” and “Texas couple killed.” At first, my search results led to dead ends, filled with unrelated cases, but then something caught my eye. An article described an unsolved case from 1976 about an elderly couple who vanished from their ranch under circumstances strikingly similar to what the lost souls had told me.
Comparing the Two Stories
The Lost Souls
During our encounter, the elderly man confessed that he ended his wife’s life to free her from the torment Candle Face inflicted on her. He admitted to taking drastic measures to cover up the evidence of what he had done. He specifically mentioned that the bathroom door had a bullet hole in it, which he couldn’t repair, so he took it off its hinges and hid it in the barn under a pile of hay. He also revealed how he was shot by their son, who believed, in a fit of rage, that his father was abandoning him. Their son then buried their bodies together in South Texas.
The Article
The article detailed an unsolved case involving an elderly couple who disappeared from their rural ranch east of Austin in 1976. Investigators found signs of violence: a bullet hole in a window, bloodstains, and most notably, a missing bedroom door that was later discovered hidden in a barn on the property. Authorities speculated on various motives, from family conflict to outside involvement, but the couple’s bodies were never found, leaving the case unsolved.
Key Similarities
Location & Background: Both the couple who visited me and the couple in the article lived on a ranch east of Austin. In both accounts, the husband had roots in Mexico.
Unusual Circumstances of Death: Both stories involve a missing door and evidence of gunshots. The man who visited me explicitly mentioned hiding a door with a bullet hole in the barn, while the article noted that investigators found a hidden door in the barn during their search.
Family Conflict: In both stories, the son played a tragic role, acting in anger.
Torment by Voices: The woman in both accounts seemed to be driven to her breaking point by cruel, incessant voices. These voices could well have been Candle Face’s way of breaking down her will, forcing her husband into a mercy killing.
Key Differences
Confession vs. Theories: The couple who visited me shared their story as a direct confession, filling in details that the investigators could only speculate on. The article, on the other hand, presented theories based on limited evidence, leaving the story unclear.
Direct Contact: The lost souls came to me directly, seemingly to set the record straight and share their side of the story. In contrast, the article is pieced together from fragmented details and speculation from the authorities, without the personal clarity I received during the encounter.
Despite the similarities, I must emphasize that I could be wrong. While the parallels between the lost souls’ story and the historical case are striking, it’s possible that I’m misinterpreting their messages or that Candle Face’s manipulations have distorted the details. For that reason, I can’t definitively say that the couple who visited me and the individuals in the article are one and the same.
Out of respect for any surviving family members who may still be searching for answers, I won’t reveal their names here. But you can do your own research. My goal is to honor the spirits who reach out to me and share their stories in a way that respects their pain, without causing further harm.
Whether these two stories are truly connected or not, what remains clear is that these souls are reaching out for closure. And as Candle Face continues to kill, I’ll continue to listen, to give them a voice, and to fight against the evil she spreads.
Is Candle Face real?
This is a complex and deeply personal question. On the one hand, there's the possibility that Candle Face is a manifestation of my childhood trauma, a figure created by my mind to cope with fear and emotional turmoil. On the other hand, the consistent details, physical evidence, and shared experiences with others suggest that Candle Face may be a genuine supernatural entity. Whether Candle Face is real or a creation of my psyche, her impact on my life has been undeniably profound. Ultimately, the answer to this question is up to you.
How are you able to communicate with the dead? Are you a psychic or medium?
I don’t consider myself a psychic or medium, although many in the paranormal community believe I have some kind of gift, perhaps one that I haven’t fully tapped into yet. Unlike those who claim to communicate with any spirit, my ability seems limited to connecting with Candle Face’s victims and Candle Face herself. While I’m not sure how this works, the connection is strong and focused on these particular Lost Souls, allowing me to share their stories and seek justice for them.
Do you use AI to create your content?
From October 2023 to around March 2024, I personally wrote the short descriptions you see on Google and social media platforms when my web pages or journal entries are shared or found in search results. These descriptions are those brief, 160-character summaries that pop up beside the URL. It was challenging to condense complex ideas into such a small space.
By March 2024, I began letting Wix, my website host, handle this task for me. Their AI generates these summaries much faster and often with more precision than I could manage within that tight character limit. It was a practical decision to let the system take over this small aspect of my work, allowing me to focus more on my writing and investigations.
The web pages and journal entries themselves are entirely my own. My writing encompasses a wide range of topics, including the testimonies of the Lost Souls, my investigations into Candle Face/Isabel, my books like Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona and The Haunted Handbook, as well as other works and research. Everything I write is rooted in my decades of experience in writing (over ten books in 15 years) and my 30+ years of expertise in intelligence analysis, missing persons cases, and human trafficking investigations. The core content you read always comes from me.
By early March 2025, I decided to create a Shopify account to sell copies of Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona, The Haunted Handbook, and to look for caretakers for The Scrolls of Souls. It was a tremendous amount of work to manually transfer all 130 journal entries from Wix to Shopify and recreate the Google SEO titles and descriptions for each entry. Shopify’s blogging platform also required a summary for each journal entry. Summarizing my work was taking around 30 minutes per entry, which became overwhelming and unsustainable.
To streamline the process, I allowed AI to create the summaries for me by uploading each journal entry and letting the AI generate the SEO descriptions, summaries, and ALT text for images. Here's a clear breakdown of what is AI-generated:
- Some journal entry titles.
- Nearly all SEO journal descriptions (up to 160 characters).
- Nearly all summaries (which are only available in the backend and not visible to the public).
Everything else you read comes from me, whether it’s documenting testimonies from the Lost Souls, researching Candle Face/Isabel, or writing my books. The AI simply handles the tedious, mechanical parts of the process, leaving the writing, storytelling, and investigations entirely in my hands.
I review all AI-generated summaries and descriptions to ensure they accurately represent the essence of my writing. My decision to use AI for these backend tasks is about maintaining efficiency and allowing me to focus on what truly matters: writing, storytelling, investigations, and giving voice to the Lost Souls, protecting the Fugitives, investigating Candle Face/Isabel, and exploring new projects. Your experience as a reader is shaped by my work, not by AI.
Why did you end the podcast?
I decided to cancel the Candle Face Chronicles Podcast for two key reasons. First, while the Get Haunted Network is a fantastic community for paranormal entertainment, it wasn't the right fit for the serious and important nature of my work with Candle Face Chronicles. The network's lighthearted tone didn’t align with my mission.
Second, the friends and family of one of Candle Face's victims reached out and asked me to stop discussing their loved one on the podcast because it was causing them too much pain. Their request made me realize that my work, while well-intentioned, was unintentionally hurting those who are still living and grieving.
These reasons led me to end the podcast, but I remain committed to continuing my mission to uncover Candle Face’s origins and methods with a renewed focus on compassion and respect for the living.
Why did you stop using www.candleface.com and start using www.branchingplotbooks.com?
I have had the branchingplotbooks.com domain since 2012, but I transferred the domain to Shopify to use it as my storefront. I needed to do this because Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona can't be published or sold via Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing because of its spiral binding requirement. The same goes for The Haunted Handbook.
I decided to sell them, along with most of my other books, on Shopify because it allows me to provide a more streamlined and reliable experience for my readers. It also enables me to have full control over my work and how it reaches my audience. Additionally, all my books are still available on Amazon (paperback and Kindle), except for Isabel: The Forgotten Daughter of La Llorona and The Haunted Handbook due to their unique binding requirements.
I also chose to use Shopify’s blogging platform, keeping all books, my journal, and the shopping experience located in one place.
I plan on keeping www.candleface.com up for the interim, but it will likely go down as well, or at least be redirected to www.branchingplotbooks.com. In the end, I want my work to be more streamlined and easier for the paranormal community and my readers to find my work, read and help the lost souls, protect the fugitives, and care for the Scrolls of Souls.
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